Rebecca Todd / Vericola Ltd

Statement from ActivistSecurity.org

Over the last year
climate action groups have become aware that they have been targeted
by a private security firm who has been gathering information to sell
on to a variety of companies. The following is an account of what is
known about them.

The centre of this
particular web is one Rebecca “Becki” Todd, from Kent. She is a
former employee of C2i, a private security and intelligence gathering
firm best known for their employment of Toby Kendall / Ken Tobias who
attempted to infiltrate Plain Stupid. She has since struck out on her
own to set up her own company, Vericola Ltd.

Ms Todd came to
light in 2010 when it became clear that she was signing up to the
lists of various environmental groups and passing them on to various
companies, including Scottish Coal. At first it was thought that this
was simply ‘open source’ intelligence gathering, but on digging a
bit further it became clear that she was up to more. It turned out
that she was hiring people to come to meetings and gather more
detailed information.

The evidence for
this was slight for some time, however a mistake by Becki Todd
provided conclusive evidence, that is, when she forwarded on an email
naming some clients to one of the groups being monitored. We have
seen these emails and verify that they both identify some of her
clients and that she was collecting this sort of information.

The evidence for her
working on direct infiltration is not as clear. It is known that this
is something she is doing, and a number of people have been
potentially identified. We believe that the Guardian[1] through their
own sources have been able to confirm this. In particular it is now
known that some of them came to Kingsnorth Climate Camp and to the
‘Swoop’ at Ratcliffe on Soar. A number of them have been
approached to be given them a chance to put their case forward.
However, none of them have replied to deny it.

While there appears
to be interest in direct action it does not appear that they were
interested in being directly involved but had a hands-off approach.
What is worth noting from this situation is the use of a variety of
people to quickly pass through groups and the use of multiple
identifies for signing up to lists rather than any attempt for deeper
infiltration.

Carl Bishop is
another individual associated with Becki Todd. There is evidence that
he came to various London Climate Camp events and the ‘Great
Climate Swoop’. A review of the documents make it clear that he is
very close to Becki Todd and we concur with the investigating group
that he is working on her behalf in the full knowledge that he is
gathering information for her business. He was approached and given a
chance to put his side of the story but did not responded to
disassociate himself from her.

We are aware that
the Guardian [2] have independently confirmed that Vericola’s
clients include Scottish Coal (a.k.a. Scottish Resource Group),
Scottish Power and e.on.

The position of the
ActivistSecurity.org collective, who have seen the work of the
investigating group, is that they have been successful in exposing a
genuine attempt of low-level information gathering by a private
security firm. Some of the sources of information need to remain
confidential, but having viewed them we believe them to be genuine.
We support the publication of this story [3] and the exposing of
Becki Todd / Vericola Ltd, and encourage groups to examine their
email lists in particular to ensure that she is removed.